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How Much Does a Trademark Attorney Cost?
Quick disclaimer up front: I'm a trademark attorney, but I'm not your attorney. Reading this does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every trademark situation turns on its own facts, and both filing fees and rules change over time. Treat this as general information to orient you, not specific legal advice. If you have a question about your brand, consult a lawyer directly.
When you budget for a federal trademark, you are paying two separate bills that buyers frequently mix up.
The USPTO Government Fee: The federal government charges a base fee of $350 per class of goods or services to process your application. This fee goes directly to the USPTO and is non-refundable regardless of whether your mark registers.
The Attorney’s Legal Fee: This is what you pay for the clearance search, legal strategy, drafting, and management. Flat fees for preparing and filing a single-class application commonly run between $500 and $2,500 — and those published figures almost always exclude the government fee, which is billed on top. Where attorneys bill hourly, the USPTO itself uses $550 per hour as the average billing rate for intellectual property work across all firms, citing AIPLA's 2025 Report of the Economic Survey.
At Markley, the flat fees are $1,495, $1,995, and $2,995, and each is all-in for a single class — the USPTO filing fee is included rather than billed back later. That difference matters when you're comparing quotes, and it's covered below.
Why Is the Range So Wide?
Because "filing an application" can mean two completely different services depending on who you hire.
At the low end, you're often buying form preparation where someone takes the name you give them, drops it into the application, and submits it. At the high end, you're buying judgment: whether your mark is registrable at all, how to describe your goods and services so the description is both accurate and useful, what the search results actually mean, and what to do when the examining attorney pushes back.
Same filing. Very different product.
This is why comparing quotes on price alone tends to mislead. The useful question isn't "what does it cost," it's "what happens when something goes wrong," because something frequently does.
What Should a Trademark Fee Actually Include?
Here's what to look for when you're comparing quotes. Ask about each one specifically, because the answers vary far more than the prices do:
Who handles the search? Is an attorney interpreting the results, or are you just getting an automated database printout?
What written analysis do I receive? Will you get a clear risk assessment before spending money on filing fees?
How are product descriptions written? Are they tailored to your actual business or pulled blindly from generic templates?
What happens if the USPTO issues a refusal — included, extra, or not offered at all.
Whether the provider is a law firm at all — document preparation services can't give legal advice or represent you before the USPTO.
Is the USPTO filing fee included in the price? Make sure you are comparing all-in numbers rather than an attorney fee with government costs added later.
Who handles maintenance deadlines years down the road.
What's excluded — get this in writing before you pay.
Item four is where most of the money actually lives.
What Does an Office Action Do to the Price?
A meaningful share of trademark applications draw at least one office action which is an official letter from the examining attorney refusing or questioning your application. Some are procedural: a classification fix, a clarified description, a specimen problem. Others are substantive, like a refusal based on likelihood of confusion with an existing mark, or a finding that your mark is merely descriptive.
The difference matters enormously to your bill. Procedural responses are relatively quick. Substantive responses involve legal argument, sometimes evidence, and occasionally a decision about whether to pursue the Supplemental Register instead.
If your quote doesn't say what happens here, that's the question to ask. A low filing fee with unbounded office action costs behind it can end up well above a higher all-in quote. Our guide to office actions walks through what these letters look like and what responding involves.
How Do Markley's Tiers Work?
Three flat fees, each all-in for a single class of goods or services, with the USPTO filing fee included rather than added afterward. Every tier is handled by a licensed California attorney, and an attorney reviews every file — search results included — at every price point. That doesn't change with the tier. What changes is how far the search reaches and what you receive in writing.
Essential — $1,495. Attorney review of your intake and search results, a USPTO knockout search, and a single-class application drafted and filed. Includes procedural office action responses. Typically filed within 10 business days of clearance.
Standard — $1,995. Everything in Essential, plus a full federal search with a common-law spot-check, a written risk summary, specimen review, and one substantive office action response within scope.
Comprehensive — $2,995. Everything in Standard, plus a comprehensive clearance search across federal, state, and common law with a formal written clearance opinion, goods and services classification strategy, office action responses through publication, a Statement of Use for intent-to-use applications, and priority response times.
The distinction worth understanding is between a search and an opinion. A knockout search tells you whether something obvious is in the way. A full federal search goes wider, adding a common-law spot-check. A formal written clearance opinion is a document analyzing your risk, and that's Comprehensive only. An attorney reviews the results at every tier — but a conversation about what a search turned up is not the same thing as a written opinion you can rely on later.
Add-ons, each quoted up front as a flat fee: additional classes at $595 each (which includes that class's government fee), a logo and wordmark combination at $795, expedited filing at $495, and a Statement of Use at $295 where it isn't already included.
What Makes a Trademark Cost More?
Several things move the number, and most are knowable before you file:
Multiple classes. Each additional class carries its own government fee plus additional attorney time — at Markley that's $595 per added class. Selling shirts and running a podcast likely means two classes.
Intent-to-use applications. Filing before you're selling means a later Statement of Use, which carries its own USPTO fee and its own deadline structure.
Descriptive marks. Names that describe what you sell draw refusals more often, and those refusals take more work to answer.
Weak search results. If similar marks already exist, the analysis gets harder and the strategy conversation gets longer.
Design marks. Logos involve drawing requirements and description work that word marks don't.
Opposition. If someone formally challenges your application after publication, that's a proceeding before the TTAB and is generally priced separately from any filing package.
What About the Fees Nobody Mentions Up Front?
Registration isn't the end of spending. Between the fifth and sixth years you file a Section 8 declaration of continued use, currently $325 per class. Renewals come every ten years, also currently $325 per class for the Section 9 renewal, filed alongside a Section 8.
Miss those windows and the registration is cancelled — there are limited grace provisions, but no general forgiveness. Whether your attorney tracks those dates for you, and whether that's included, is worth asking at the outset. Our full breakdown of trademark costs covers the government fee schedule in more detail.
Is a Cheaper Filing Service a Reasonable Choice?
Sometimes, and it depends on what you're protecting.
Non-attorney filing services are generally less expensive because they're selling a narrower thing: document preparation. They cannot give legal advice, cannot tell you whether your mark is likely registrable, and cannot represent you before the USPTO if a refusal arrives. That's not a criticism of how they do their work — it's a description of what the service is.
If your mark is distinctive, your search comes back clean, and your goods are simple, that may be enough. If your name is descriptive, your search turns up similar marks, or the brand is central to your business, the calculation looks different. Our guide to running a trademark search is a reasonable place to start figuring out which situation you're in.
FAQ
Do I have to use an attorney to file a trademark?
Not if you're a U.S.-domiciled applicant you can file on your own behalf. Applicants domiciled outside the United States are required to be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney.
Is the USPTO fee refundable if my application is refused?
No. The $350 per class is a processing fee. It's spent whether or not the mark registers.
Why do some attorneys charge hourly instead of a flat fee?
Flat fees work well for predictable scopes like preparing and filing. Disputes, oppositions, and complex refusals are harder to scope in advance, so many firms bill those hourly. Plenty of firms use both.
Does a trademark attorney cost more than a trademark search?
They're usually bundled rather than separate purchases. Standalone comprehensive searches are sometimes sold on their own, but most flat-fee packages include some level of search work and the question is how deep it goes and what you get in writing.
When comparing two flat-fee quotes, what's the trap?
Whether the government's filing fee is inside the number or added afterward. A $1,200 quote with $350 billed separately and a $1,550 all-in quote are the same price. Ask which one you're looking at before comparing anything else.
Can I start cheap and upgrade later if there's a problem?
Often, though it's worth asking how a provider handles that. Switching representation mid-application is possible but adds friction, and some costs don't transfer.
Selecting the right filing structure depends on what you are protecting and how far along your business is. Markley offers flat-fee federal trademark filings backed by licensed attorneys, with clear clearance guidance before you spend a dollar on government fees. Contact us to discuss which tier fits your brand.
